User blog:WatermelonTrooper/Into the Red Zone
"You know it. The Red Zone," Corporal Minegishi remarked, putting on a mysterious expression as she leaned back against the bulkhead. As though I was supposed to know what the hell that was. I was almost fresh off the dropship, and had spent the last three months on the Ibuki, roaming through Imperial Space after our last training op back on Niigata. The first thing that hit me as I stepped off the Zuiun was the jungle heat. Surely not the entire planet was like this, but the part where the action was taking place just had to be in what was probably the Empire's largest jungle. The moment my boots hit the sticky Mizuhoan mud, I was given all of fifteen minutes to acclimatise before I was suddenly ordered by a sergeant major with a prosthetic arm to dump my pack into a pile that would be airlifted to another FOB, within what I would soon come to learn was called the Red Zone. Something else I noticed about my surroundings before I was ordered onto a Mi-47 was that some of the indigenous trees - that is, not one the carbon-copy Yamatai-origin clones our forefathers forced upon the worlds in our sector - could move by themselves. They would turn out to actually be a kind of large animal capable of photosynthesis, and I admit I did learn to enjoy the taste of the Hakukis' hearts. My platoon was split up almost as soon as we landed, with my section pushed onto a Mi-47 helicopter with another two soldiers who were rejoining their platoon after some R&R. One of them was Corporal Minegishi, an attractive, talkative young Hirasakan who was also her squad machine gunner. Naturally I didn't pay much attention to what she said until we were airborne - I admit my mind was elsewhere regarding her at that point. The other was a Lance Corporal Haruki, who had apparently become a Terminal Lance some three years ago with no promotion in sight. He surely fit the description, as my first interaction with him involved him blowing a cloud of Marifana smoke at my face. Sergeant Hijikata immediately settled in behind the vacant machine gun and waved the rest of the section off. I guess we had already talked too much on the ride down for him. The helicopter lifted off, followed by two others carrying the rest of the platoon. I knew nothing about Mizuho, nobody did. All we knew was that there was a serious rebel problem on this planet, serious enough that the Imperial Military had never defeated the rebels for over 400 years. We laughed at it then, but I would soon learn the sheer tenacity and strong will of the Mizuhoan people. I do respect them in some ways as equals in war. We just happened to support different ideals, though theirs were flawed as they refused to believe in the Empress' divinity. As we flew over the endless jungles I noticed numerous animals and birds. The whole planet was teeming with life, ranging from massive animals I never believed I would see to small airbag-lifted lizards that we shot at for fun, watching the little explosions. Halfway there, the pilot put on some loud music to lighten the mood. I then tried to strike up conversation with Minegishi, for obvious reasons. "So, where the hell are we going?" I asked casually over the roar of the rotor blades, half-raking the action on my rifle dramatically before immediately regretting the cheesy move. "You know it. The Red Zone," Corporal Minegishi replied, leaning against the bulkhead and putting on a mysterious expression. I noticed her exoskeleton and her weapon both sported a field-painted tiger stripe camouflage of green and black, and she had numerous non-standard quirks about her appearance, such as her name and a vulgar statement painted on her helmet. "We're fresh off the dropship. What's this about?" "Red Zone. Officially the Forward Edge of Battle Area. Highest casualty rate of the whole sector. It's all in the base pamphlets, you fall asleep after getting of the Ryuusei?" "I got fucking fifteen minutes before getting on this chopper," I protested, "by the way, what the hell's all this? They don't enforce regs or what?" "We don't give a shit, they don't give a shit. That's the way of the jungle, Hei'," she replied, shrugging and flipping off the jungle far below. I shrugged as well, for lack of anything better to do, returning to scanning the jungle. Category:Blog posts